Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. Nearly every supporter of President Donald Trump thinks otherwise, according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll.
As the president makes unsubstantiated claims about electoral malfeasance and sows doubts about vote tallies, only 3% of Trump voters surveyed said they accept Biden’s victory as legitimate, the survey released Monday found. A staggering 73% of respondents consider Trump the legitimate winner. Another 24% said they are not sure.
A mere 3% of Trump voters believe he should concede to Biden and start the peaceful transfer of power. Another 31% want the president to fight in court until states certify results. Two-thirds, or 66%, think Trump should never concede.
Does anyone think that Democrats can just “reach across the aisle” and GOP officials whose voters believe he cheated his way into office will reach back? Will the cynical opportunists of the Republican party refuse to use this as an excuse to obstruct everything and sabotage Biden’s presidency?
Please.
I am sorry to be pessimistic, but Trump has convinced around 50 million people that Biden’s win is illegitimate despite there being absolutely NO EVIDENCE that it is. They are brainwashed. And even if half of them eventually come to realize that he and the right wing media have been spouting lies for years, that will leave a vast number of people who will never believe this election was honest and that will give the GOP license to do their worst.
Remember, when the Democrats impeached Trump last winter, the Senate Republicans all said that the decision about what to do about Donald Trump should be left to the voters in November. Now it appears that’s not good enough either. In other words, they will only respect “the will of the voters” if it goes their way. This isn’t going to be last we see of this tactic. Trump has shown that you can simply declare that you won and your voters will believe you no matter the facts.
I don’t think Trump will be going away any time soon. He’s going to run again — or say he’s running again in order to start collecting money. But even if he fades away, the damage he’s done is incalculable.
Update:
Republicans are going to become more Trumpy not less:
